. >> reporter: republicans want to know if it includes the government spending less money. >> we put revenue on the table as long as it's accompanied by serious cuts. >> reporter: white house leaders are meeting with boehner and top republicans. at least one analyst thinks there could be a deal here. >> if i were involved in a negotiation like this and everybody was purporting to be where they are, i would say that an agreement was reachable. >> i'm hopeful but don't put me down anywhere near optimistic. >> reporter: one conservative republican is now suggesting while negotiations continue on whether the wealthy should pay more, congress should stop tax rates from going up on the middle class now. >> we're not going to raise taxes on those people. i think we ought to go ahead and make that abundantly clear to everybody and take them out of the negotiations. >> reporter: bottom line, no deal yet. both sides are still talking. and both sides signaling that they're willing to give up something to get this done and get it done on time. tracie potts, nbc news, washington. >>> on the inter